Key Insights

• Premiere Details: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery will debut next month at the Toronto International Film Festival.
• Plot Challenge: Writer/director Rian Johnson states that Benoit Blanc will face a unique and challenging case.
• Character Development: Blanc’s personal journey in this film is described as significant and transformative.
• Theatrical Release: Johnson hopes for a wider theatrical release compared to Glass Onion.

Set to premiere next month at the Toronto International Film Festival, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery will feature a case that writer/director Rian Johnson says will challenge Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) in ways he’s never faced.

“It’s centred around the church, and all the suspects are regulars in the parish,” Johnson told Empire. “Blanc is seeing it as, ‘It’s just a murder, I can solve this.’ The way the murder presents itself is the opposite of that. It’s framed as an impossible thing that could never have happened, almost miraculous in nature. And Blanc as the rationalist is coming in to do what he does, and prove that wrong.“

Johnson added that Blanc will spend much of his time working alongside Father Jud (Josh O’Connor). “He ends up partnering with Blanc on solving this mystery; it’s very much [Jud’s] journey,” said Johnson, but he added that Blanc “has the biggest personal journey in this one. Benoit has to engage with [the mystery] in a different way. He’s in a very different place than in the previous two films. Daniel and I had a lot of fun thinking about where Blanc is at in his life. And I think he’s going through some shit!“

Johnson has expressed his hope that Netflix gives Wake Up Dead Man a wider theatrical release than Glass Onion, which received a limited, one-week theatrical release in roughly 600 theaters. “I want this in as many theaters for as long as possible,” Johnson said. “We’re going to push for everything we can get in terms of theatrical, because I want as many people as possible to see it in that form.“

Wake Up Dead Man will mark the end of Johnson’s lucrative two-film contract with Netflix, but the director said he “would keep doing them as long as I can.” However, given how vocal Johnson (and Craig) have been regarding theatrical releases for the Knives Out sequels, I’d wager that any future installments will find a home elsewhere.

Following its world premiere at TIFF, Wake Up Dead Man will debut on Netflix on December 12.